Spain Snatch Bronze Over Lithuania

Spain ended a miserable final 2 days for Lithuania at the Termosteps U16 European Championship Men in Leon, confining them to a 63-70 defeat in the bronze medal game.

Lithuania had set themselves up as gold medal favourites after cruising through their opening 6 games of the competition (including victory against Spain) by an average margin of 21 ppg.

However, they came unstuck in their final two games, suffering a come-from-behind victory against France in the semi-finals and a comprehensive loss to Spain in the bronze medal game.

Pablo Aguilar

It was Lithuania who were the masters of the first game against Spain. They led by as many as 28 points in the contest and it was only a furious fourth quarter run by the Spanish which reduced the score to a respectable 87-76 in Lithuania's favour.

But in the bronze medal game it was Spain's turn to lead from the front.

Center Pablo Aguilar had 12 of his 25 points in an opening quarter in which Spain jumped out to a 15-28 lead.

It was plain sailing from that point on for the Spanish as they kept Lithuania at arms length for the remainder of the game.

Aguilar was the outstanding performer for Spain and he added 19 rebounds to his 25 points, including a tournament high 12 offensive rebounds.